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Submitted by Editor — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 00:00
Ulfat Jahan, Dhaka Community Manager
Bangladeshi garment factories have become synonymous with deathbeds, as evidenced by the frequent accidents, fires, and building collapses in recent years. The recent building collapse in Savar caused the deaths of thousands of workers. As a consequence, foreign investors are withdrawing their investments from the garments sector, which accounts for 80 percent of the country’s export earnings. It is surprising that despite the overwhelming importance of this sector, law enforcement in this sector is depressingly weak.
How do we explain the negligence towards safety in such a vital sector? One explanation is that 42 percent of the owners of garment factories are in fact lawmakers, and proper enforcement of the safety regulations would reduce their profits. They have little incentive to facilitate the enforcement of these laws. The major buyers, another important group of stakeholders, have taken initiatives such as producing training films and conducting private audits, but these initiatives have made only a small impact. The trainings are ineffective when confronted with real crisis situations, and the private audits have been proved to be futile since some of the factories that had passed these audits experienced major accidents soon after.
The indifference of the lawmakers and the failure of the buyers are frustrating, but there are other actors fighting for workers’ rights. Although the Bangladeshi government has been restrictive regarding the formation of trade unions, the National Garment Workers’ Federation (NGWF), Bangladesh’s largest trade union federation, has been relentlessly working for garment workers’ rights for 29 years. Two of its main objectives are to ensure decent working conditions and fair living wages. The NGWF negotiates with the government, factory owners, and multinational corporations for stronger legislation and proper enforcement. Additionally, it provides legal advice to workers and organizes training sessions to create awareness among the workers about their rights. The NGWF drafted the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement in 2011 with other labor organizations; it proposes the creation of a team of independent inspectors to ensure safe working environments. However, the major buyers denied the proposal since it requires massive investment. The Savar tragedy has revived the enthusiasm of NGWF’s president, Mr. Amin, who has started a petition calling on retailers such as Primark, Matalan, Mango, and Bonmarche to sign the agreement, as these companies had contracts with the factories in the collapsed building. As of May 2013, Primark and H&M had signed the agreement due to popular pressure.
The Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS) is a non-profit organization that also promotes workers’ rights in the apparel industry. In addition to building the workers’ capacity to advocate for their rights, BCWS is renowned for the documentation of labor abuses and violations of labor rights. Its leadership training program for female garment workers has successfully educated workers about their rights, and has led to the creation of female-led trade unions in a number of factories.
These organizations’ road to success is not easy. It is difficult to attract exhausted and underpaid garment workers to union meetings. More challenging is to influence the government and the buyers, since the interests of these two groups sharply contradict with the workers’ interests. In addition, court cases and police repression against members are all too common.
Hopefully, the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement will be signed and will be implemented effectively, improving the factories’ working conditions. The labor organizations must work together to negotiate with the lawmakers, and should raise support from international consumers as the consumers’ collective buying power can significantly impact the retailers.
Photo credit: Rijans
Submitted by Carlin Carr — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 00:00
Carlin Carr, Bangalore Community Manager
The Bangladesh garment factory collapse reminded us of the humanity behind our everyday fashion. The substandard conditions are common to stitchers in Bangalore as well. Even before the tragedy in Dhaka, Bangalore played host to a people’s tribunal, “Living Wages for Garment Workers,” to hear the voices behind the brands speak on issues related to living wages and decent working conditions as a human right. It was the “first-ever attempt” to bring together workers from all major apparel hubs from across India.
Bangalore has 500,000 garment workers — almost 90 percent of whom are women. They work for wages that would take them months to save for the fashionable items they spend long hours making. A Guardian article on the 2012 tribunal says the national textile industry is worth $53 million a year and employs 35 million people across India. “Garment exports are worth £21bn. But human rights campaigners accuse international brands of subcontracting to firms paying poverty wages to the people who make their clothes.” In addition, workers at the tribunal spoke out on abuse for not meeting impossible quotas, lack of drinking water and toilets, poor healthcare, and long working hours. Many of the women are sole breadwinners for their households and face hurdles in educating their children on such low wages.
Trade union leaders say that Bangalore’s garment workers are being paid half of what they should be paid for supplying to major retail outlets such as Gap and Walmart. “The textile industry accounts for nearly 12 percent share of the country’s total exports,” said K.R. Jayaram of the Garment and Textile Workers’ Union (GATWU) in an article in The Hindu. “Despite the economic importance of this industry, garment workers receive less than half of what is needed to support their families.” GATWU has successfully lobbied for higher minimum wages in Karnataka, Bangalore’s home state, though these are incremental steps toward a livable wage and many workers continue to get paid below minimum standards.
While unions such as GATWU have made headway, grassroots organizing for female garment workers faces its own challenges. Since many employers are against unionization, employees fear joining unions. Also, according to a study on Bangalore’s garment workers, female laborers have many responsibilities besides their jobs, and “the practicalities of their lives leave the women with limited energy, time or space to engage in the activities necessary to build solidarity.” The complicating factors have forced grassroots movements to take creative approaches to aligning the women for their own cause. The study cites the example of Munnade, which started off as a micro-savings scheme for women. The group grew tighter and within a couple of years emerged as a women’s movement. Today, as a union, Munnade “has given women the confidence to begin to challenge their work conditions.”
In the aftermath of the Bangladesh disaster, female workers in Bangalore spoke out again on issues that continue to go neglected. Little progress has been made since last year’s tribunal. It took devastating circumstances in the U.S., such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York in 1911 that killed 146, to improve the conditions of garment workers there. Disaster has already struck neighboring Bangladesh. Hopefully India will tighten regulations before headlines burn with yet another tragedy.
Photo credit: Pagla Dashu
Submitted by Katy Fentress — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 00:00
Katy Fentress, Nairobi Community Manager
Nairobi is not the city it was five years ago.
The capital of Kenya is transforming its skyline: high-rises are mushrooming up and away from the Central Business District in a quest to find unoccupied space and expand. Accompanying this vertical climb is the ongoing construction of a network of roads and bypasses, aimed to make Nairobi a more fluid and modern city.
Some of the key roads that are now nearing completion have been under construction for years. This has opened up an opportunity for street vendors to create informal markets and stalls from which to provide the workforce with food and refreshments.
One such cluster of traders has been operating from an area called Riverside for half a decade. “When we first came here we agreed with the City Council that we could stay,” says Mary Wambui, who prepares large quantities of tea, maize meal, and stew over a small wood fire in a series of scorched and battered tin pots. “The agreement was verbal and they never issued us with licenses. Over the years we have been forced to move again and again. Recently the police have really stepped up the pressure: as soon as they move us from one precarious piece of land to another, the cycle of harassment starts again.”
Frustrated by what they see as double standards on the part of their constituency officers that on the one hand charge them a set fee to operate their stalls but, on the other, disrupt their work, the vendors have organized themselves into a formal self-help group.
The objective of the group is to petition their constituency representatives into recognizing that they are providing a much-needed service to workmen and commuters alike, and that as such they should be assigned a plot of land from which to operate.
“We would like it if the City Council built modern kiosks for us,” says Simon Wachira, head of the association. “A few years back we were told that there was some money that had been set aside to help us relocate but that members of the previous administration took it for themselves. As a result, now we would just like to be assigned a piece of land and have a license to operate without fear of harassment; once we have that we can, as a group, find a loan with which to build the kiosks by ourselves.”
Without any documents to prove they were given consent to trade on the road, the association is faced with an uphill struggle. Nevertheless they are determined to open up a dialogue with their councilor and to use their strength as a registered organization to negotiate a series of basic rights for themselves.
“This morning the police came and made a swoop,” says Wambui. “We had just finished cooking, but now we have no plates on which to serve food. Instead of going to the police station ten kilometers away, we have decided to write a letter, which we will present directly to our councilor. If they want to relocate us it is fine, but now we are a group and as such they must treat us with more respect.”
For a small group of traders like this, formalization is the first step towards ensuring legal recognition and, in time, to secure the ability to ply their trade without fear of eviction and harassment. The newly elected government has still not made it clear how it intends to deal with what is a divisive citywide issue. The fate of these and many other informal traders is yet to be sealed.
Submitted by Wura — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 00:00
Olatawura Ladipo-Ajayi, Lagos Community Manager
Labour laws exist to protect employees from exploitation by their employers. Unfortunately, many companies and factories in Lagos do not adhere to these laws, leading to overworked, underpaid workers who perform in hostile, unhealthy, and dangerous work environments. In one recent case in Lagos, an employee lost his life while on duty in a Chinese-owned nylon manufacturing company with over 500 factory employees. This incident set off a series of worker protests against labour violations and unjust employment conduct.
Earlier this year, the workers of the Chinese factory went on strike, demanding retribution for the family of their deceased co-worker who passed away. They protested against the lack of safety tools, and for better work conditions, fewer working hours, and increased pay. In this factory, employees work long hours and are paid below the stated minimum wage as a contract staff. The Campaign for Democratic Workers Rights (CDWR) has been instrumental in supporting the factory workers’ struggle for better employment conditions.
The CDWR is an international campaign that aims to promote and to strengthen the workers’ movement in Nigeria by providing practical and financial solidarity. The organisation is known to take up the causes of various work groups, including the LAGBUS workers’ union formation in 2008, and the Lagos State Rural Transport Initiative’s reduction of work hours from 60 hours to 40 hours per week in 2011. The CDWR is now championing the cause of the Lagos-based Chinese factory workers. The organization sees the need for the creation of a union at the factory to help the workers advance their cause with this issue, and in the future should the need arise. With support from the CDWR, the workers have petitioned the factory for the creation of a union to help negotiate better working conditions and better pay. As the publicity secretary for CDWR has stated, this is the surest way to ensure that labour laws are adhered to and that workers rights are not constantly violated by the company.
On behalf of the factory’s staff, the CDWR demands not only that the management allows unionization of employees, but also that it pays adequate compensation to the family of the deceased worker, that it provides enough safety tools, and better working conditions for all workers so as to avoid future casualties. The organisation is also petitioning the management to end “casualisation” in the company, a practice that allows the majority of staff to be underpaid, since they are considered contract staff. Furthermore, the CDWR is appealing to the Nigeria Labour Congress to get involved in ending unjust labour practices. Conversations regarding unionization are still ongoing between the company, its employees, and the CDWR, but since the CDWR’s intervention, the factory has introduced some safety and precautionary tools to the factory. The organisation is dedicated to seeing the issue of unionization resolved and is prepared to support the workers’ cause for as long as it takes to secure just labour terms.
Photo credit: Tontodike
Submitted by Catalina Gomez — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 00:00
Catalina Gomez, Coordenadora da Rede em Rio de Janeiro
Brasil vem avançando a partir de 1950 na expansão da proteção básica para todos seus trabalhadores. Entre os avanços mais importantes estão à aprovação de um conjunto de leis e normas para garantir um salario mínimo para todos os trabalhadores formais, além de outros benefícios, como o seguro de desemprego, beneficio de maternidade, aceso a um fundo de popança, feiras remuneradas e bolsas de transporte e alimentação.
Reconhecendo estes avanços o principal desafio que o Brasil enfrenta atualmente é aumentar a formalização de trabalhadores que continuam na informalidade. Para colocar uma perspectiva de cidade, observemos a situação no Rio de Janeiro. Segundo a iniciativa cidadã Rio Como Vamos, em 2007 Rio tenha 2,174,568 trabalhadores formais e em 2011, só foram registrados 320 mil trabalhadores a mais, tornando-se urgente maiores esforços na formalização. Os grupos que seriam mais favorecidos com esforços específicos de formalização são os pequenos empreendedores de baixa renda e outros trabalhadores informais com pouca visibilidade tais como os domésticos e catadores de lixo.
Outro tema prioritário que precisa melhoria é a educação dos trabalhadores. Atualmente em torno de 40 por cento dos trabalhadores só tem completado ensino médio. Como os setores de maior crescimento na cidade são aqueles de serviços e comercio, é prioritário educar e treinar os trabalhadores para este mercado. Além destes esforços também é urgente aprimorar a capacidade daqueles trabalhadores para conseguir empregos melhor pagos sendo que 52 por cento dos trabalhadores tem uma renda media mensal de 2 salários mínimos.
Para atender estes desafios no Rio, existem varias iniciativas lideradas pelo governo local. Por exemplo, existem varias iniciativas e serviços que oferecem apoio aos trabalhadores a formalizar suas atividades. A maioria destes serviços é oferecida pelos Centros Públicos de Emprego, Trabalho, e Renda localizados em áreas estratégicas da cidade. Estes centros oferecem informação para os trabalhadores no processo de formalização e na expedição da carteira de trabalho. Adicionalmente, a Secretaria Municipal de Educação, opera os Centros de Educação para Jovens e Adultos (CEJA) para que pessoas de baixa renda possam completar os ciclos de ensino fundamental e meio, além de achar oportunidades de treinamento e de geração de renda. Para facilitar o aceso, muitos dos cursos podem ser feitos mediante aulas virtuais.
Um desafio que ainda precisa urgente atenção é a melhora no aceso e qualidade de creches e educação infantil para os filhos dos trabalhadores, especialmente para as mulheres chefe de família. Atualmente o governo local vem fazendo melhoras, mais ainda precisa dar uma expansão significativa que beneficie mais trabalhadores.
Crédito fotográfico: Portal Brasil
Submitted by Catalina Gomez — Mon, 07/15/2013 – 00:00
Catalina Gomez, Rio de Janeiro Community Manager
Since the 1950s, Brazil has been taking important steps to ensure the basic protection of all its workers. The most relevant advances include the approval of a series of laws and regulations that ensure formal workers a minimum wage, and a number of benefits, including unemployment benefits, maternity leave, access to a pension fund, and paid time off, and sometimes transportation and meal subsidies.
Given these advances in workers’ protection, Brazil’s current challenge is to increase formality among workers who remain informal, so that they too can receive the various basic protections and benefits associated with formality. To illustrate this challenge, let’s take Rio de Janeiro as an example of what happens at the city level. According to the citizen initiative Rio Como Vamos, in 2007, there were 2,174,568 formal workers in Rio de Janeiro. Five years later, there were only 320,000 more formal workers. In order to significantly increase the number of formal workers, efforts are needed to target low-income populations working as entrepreneurs and also in other less visible sectors, like domestic work and waste picking.
Another aspect that needs to be improved is the education levels of the city’s workers, as only 40 percent of them have completed middle school education. Given that Rio’s fastest-growing sectors include services and commerce, educating and training the labor force would let them qualify for these dynamic sectors. Workers also need greater access to better paying jobs than their current ones, as about 52 percent of formal workers in Rio only earn up to twice the minimum wage.
In order to improve workers’ conditions in Rio, there are various measures being implemented at the city level. The local government promotes a series of campaigns and assistance to low-income workers so that they can receive support in formalizing their work. This is carried out by the Centros Públicos de Emprego, Trabalho, e Renda (the Public Employment, Labor, and Intermediation Centers), which are located throughout the city. In these centers, low-income workers receive guidance on the requirements and benefits of formalizing their activities, and they can get help in issuing their worker’s identification. In addition, the city’s education secretariat operates various youth and adult education centers, where residents can continue their primary and middle school education, and be connected to additional training or practical income-generating activities. Some of these courses offered by these centers can be carried out virtually, which facilitates access.
A key aspect that is still unresolved is ensuring better access to affordable and quality childcare, which has always been one of the biggest bottlenecks for working parents, especially women. Currently, the local government is supporting initiatives to expand such services, but greater efforts need to be taken in order to benefit even more of Rio’s workers.
Photo credit: Portal Brasil
Catalina Gomez, Rio de Janeiro Community Manager
Carlin Carr, Mumbai Community Manager
Di Bulan Oktober ini, Pemerintah DKI Jakarta memulai pembangunan dua sistem transportasi massal berbasis rel, yaitu MRT dan Monorail. Gubernur Jakarta Joko Widodo meresmikan pembangunan awal stasiun kereta transportasi massal cepat (MRT) di kawasan Dukuh Atas, Jakarta Pusat, pada hari Kamis 10 Oktober 2013. Jalur MRT ini merupakan tahap pertama yang akan menghubungkan kawasan Bundaran Hotel Indonesia, Blok M hingga Lebak Bulus. Rencananya pemerintah Jakarta akan membangun proyek MRT lanjutan yang menghubungkan berbagai wilayah di Jakarta. Baca lebih lanjut.
Tentu kita masih ingat mengenai proses normalisasi waduk pluit yang dilakukan beberapa bulan lalu dan sempat menuai banyak protes dari warga setempat. Namun proses normalisasi waduk tersebut tetap terus dilakukan oleh Pemerintah daerah DKI Jakarta dengan tujuan mengembalikan fungsi waduk seperti semula yaitu tempat penampungan air. Bantaran waduk yang dulu menjadi tempat pembuangan sampah dan pemukiman kumuh, kini menunjukkan penampilan yang berbeda. Baca lebih lanjut.
Selama sebulan terakhir, dimulai pada 2 Juni sampai 3 Juli 2013 yang lalu, Kota Jakarta sedang mengadakan rangkaian perayaan hari ulang tahun yang ke-486. Dengan mengusung tema “Jakarta Baru, Jakarta Kita”, perayaan ulang tahun Kota Jakarta tahun ini terasa berbeda. Dalam merayakan HUT Jakarta tahun 2013 ini, Gubernur DKI Jakarta Joko Widodo lebih banyak menggelar acara yang konsepnya terbuka dan melibatkan masyarakat. Pria yang akrab disapa Jokowi ini mengharapkan, dengan acara-acara yang jenis itu, akan semakin timbul rasa cinta warga terhadap Kota Jakarta. Dari rasa kecintaan ini akan timbul kesadaran untuk menjaga, merawat dan memajukan kota. Jokowi mengungkapkan mulai 2013 dan selama ia menjabat sebagai gubernur, tidak akan ada lagi kesan maupun kondisi eklusif dalam perayaan HUT Kota Jakarta. Semua lapisan warga harus merasa gembira merayakannya. Baca lebih lanjut.
Sebagai ibukota negara dengan penduduk sekitar 10 juta jiwa, Jakarta menjadi kota dengan kepadatan lalu lintas yang tinggi. Kemacetan menjadi pemandangan sehari-hari bagi warga Jakarta. Meskipun begitu, transportasi publik tetap menjadi pilihan warga Jakarta untuk beraktifitas sehari-hari. Baca lebih lanjut.
Pada awalnya Waduk Pluit memiliki luas 80 hektare. Sekarang luas waduk tersebut menyusut menjadi 60 hektare. Penyebabnya, 20 hektare luas waduk telah disesaki bangunan ilegal. Luas genangan waduk diperkirakan berkurang dari 80 hektar menjadi sekitar 60 hektar akibat maraknya hunian liar. Waduk juga dipenuhi sampah dan limbah buangan rumah tangga. Dampak berikutnya, terjadilah pendangkalan akibat sedimentasi. Dari kedalaman awal sekitar 20 meter, kedalaman rata-rata waduk seluas 80 hektar itu hanya berkisar 1-5 meter. Baca lebih lanjut.
Walkability and green spaces are not the same thing, but it feels as if they ought to be related somehow. This is because walkability in its most basic form is more than some version of “is possible to walk there”, but also “is possible and pleasant to walk there.” Or is it? One published definition of walkability, for example, is: “The extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence of people living, shopping, visiting, enjoying or spending time in an area.” (from Walkability Scoping Paper, 2005). All the action is in the word “friendly”, and there’s a lot of unpacking to do. Read more.
Mumbai’s streets are a scary battleground. Rickshaws nudge ahead of beastly city buses; cows wander aimlessly through jams of oversized cars; and pedestrians push across busy intersections in droves, hoping the power in numbers will help them reach the other side safely. Everyone is vulnerable in this situation, but no one more than the thousands of school children who walk to school, often in the streets, in the absence of school buses and navigable sidewalks. Read more or join the discussion.
O fato que Curitiba seja reconhecida como uma cidade verde, acessível e organizada não é um resultado improvisado, mais é resultado de uma cultura sólida de planejamento urbano e da liderança de suas administrações. Apresentamos alguns dos motivos que ajudam a explicar aquela boa reputação de Curitiba especialmente sobre por que é verde, acessível e “humana”; também apresentamos alguns dos desafios que enfrenta na matéria. Leia mais o discutir.
In 2004, an estimated 5,000 lives were lost from road crashes on Nigerian motorways. This number more than tripled in 2006, with an estimated 16,000 people killed as a result of road crashes. Low awareness of road safety among road users (pedestrians and motorists), and poor road conditions are some critical factors responsible for these avoidable fatalities. The city of Lagos is crawling with millions of people, the majority of whom travel on foot. Recently, there has been more emphasis on keeping city pedestrians safe from harm’s way by improving road safety rules and infrastructure. Read more or join the discussion.
Apa yang terjadi ketika seseorang memutuskan naik sepeda di Jakarta? rata-rata mereka pasti akan mengeluh soal betapa parah polusi dan kemacetan di jalan, belum ditambah sepeda motor atau bis kota yang tidak mau mengalah dan memotong jalan dan mobil yang kian hari jumlahnya terus bertambah. Ditengah kekacauan kota Jakarta, ada angin segar dari pemerintah yang mulai menunjukkan keperpihakan terhadap para pemakai sepeda di Jakarta dengan membuat jalur sepeda pertama kalinya tahun 2011. Meski demikian masih banyak tantangan bagi Jakarta untuk menjadi kota yang ramah bagi pemakai sepeda. Baca lebih lanjut atau bergabung dalam diskusi.
Desde mediados del siglo XX Cali ha experimentado un crecimiento muy significativo. La población que en 1951 era de 284.000 personas, pasó a 1.400.000 en 1991, y a 2.3200.000 en el 2013. El antiguo dentro histórico se ha visto rodeado por una sucesión de hasta 22 comunas en una extensión de 120.000 km2. La creciente necesidad de traslados dentro de la ciudad, y la ausencia de un sistema de transporte masivo, resultaron en un crecimiento explosivo en el número de vehículos circulando por la ciudad, y que en el último censo publicado, con datos del 2011, superaban ya el medio millón. Para acomodar todo este tráfico rodado, los sucesivos gobiernos municipales buscaron ampliar las calzadas y crearon vías rápidas, desplazando al peatón a un segundo lugar. Como consecuencia de todas estas dinámicas, Cali se convirtió en una ciudad sumamente congestionada, difícil y peligrosa para los peatones y ciclistas, y con un considerable déficit de espacios públicos. Leer más o discutir.
Travel in South Africa, and Southern Africa in general, is highly skewed by economic means. It is dominated by walking (often great distances on poor quality footpaths) and by public transport, primarily among the poor. In Johannesburg, the situation is exacerbated by the marginalisation created by historic spatial planning and the sprawling, low-density nature of the city. According to the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Transport, urbanisation and urban poverty require not only urban transport solutions but also low-cost modes of travel such as cycling. This strategy, known as “Non-Motorised Transport” or NMT, over recent years has gradually become a priority area at National, Provincial and Local Government levels, resulting in the City of Johannesburg’s Framework for NMT in 2009. Read more or join the discussion.
Mumbai’s commuter woes are as oft discussed as scores to the latest cricket match. They are griped about daily and exchanged with fervor. Gridlock, overcrowded trains, non-existent east-west routes dominate the discussion and so do the controversial solutions on the table: sealinks, flyovers, monorails. Transportation activists such as Rishi Aggarwal, a research fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and member of the Mumbai Transport Forum (MTF), says that one of the major issues is that there is no integrated approach to planning, leaving commuters with ad hoc, disconnected systems. Read more or join the discussion.
One glaring example is the infrastructure in Lagos city for handling human waste (sewage), sanitation, and drinking water — which is poorly organized and uncontrolled where it exists at all, and utterly inhumane in its effects on Lagos residents. It is common to see pipes for drinking water passing through open drains — drains that periodically receive human waste when locals open their septic tanks into them or when waste leaks into them directly. In fact, Lagos city does not treat all the human waste generated by its millions of residents each day; instead, it is emptied directly into the Lagos lagoon — with serious health consequences, especially for the city’s poorer neighborhoods.
The rain is a nightmare for Lagosians, as frequent floods destroy roads and other infrastructure. The commute into the city during the rainy season — which combines the effects of flooding with the city’s already lengthy traffic jams — must be seen to be believed.
Through campaigns and broad outreach, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can alert the public about the urgent issues our cities face. NGOs also can help vocalize the interests of the urban poor, who are not well-represented in policymaking — a fact made obvious by the kind of infrastructure they get.
Assume that the city of Lagos has 80 streets. Those streets can be divided into units of eight blocks of streets each. The septic tanks of eight streets are linked to a central waste system (biogas plant). The biogas produced is then used in running gas engine pumps for water generation from water boreholes and circulation back to consumers in the streets. So we have ten units — in a decentralized and closed system — each independently treating its own waste water, generating green energy, and providing clean water to the people living there.
Since May 2009, the Lagos state government, led by Governor Babatunde Fashola, has aggressively pursued the construction of drains in all areas of Lagos and has cleared many canals. But despite these efforts, which should be applauded, there is still flooding in Lagos streets and roads, not only in the coastal areas but in all parts of Lagos — both mainland and island, slums and wealthy neighborhoods. There are no specifications and no coordination of these urban drains, and the construction contracts might be awarded to upwards of 20 different contractors — which then must figure out how to build systems that are supposed to function together, wasting precious resources in the process.
It is only the start of the rains in Lagos, yet the danger signs in coastal belts are all too evident. The vulnerability of poor communities in the low-lying areas of Lagos will only increase with the advent of climate change, due to intense rainfall and increasing storm surges. Meanwhile, this year’s extreme weather demands well-planned and inclusive mitigation strategies. Read and discuss.
The second day of the New Cities Summit hosted several interesting and thought-provoking discussions. The day started with a panel on participation; highlights included Porto Alegre’s Mayor José Fortunati talking about the city’s renowned participative budgeting exercise which has been in place for 23 years. He attributed the city’s excellent scores on the Human Development Index to the great levels of active and sustained citizen participation in key development issues. Read more.
Influential policy makers, academics, innovators, entrepreneurs, and social and urban development practitioners are currently gathered in São Paulo for a two-day summit organized by the New Cities Foundation. The event focuses on the current challenges that cities face becoming more just and inclusive. Read more.
One in ten young mobile phone users in Rio de Janeiro use that device for online access; on average, Rio youth are connected to Facebook about 5.3 hours a day. But many of them use the Internet and social networks not just to socialize, but also to mobilize their peers in behalf of social and environmental causes. Such is the case of Marcos Braz and a group of surfers and engaged friends — most of them living in Rocinha — who are worried about the contamination of São Conrado beach, located in Rio’s southern zone and considered by many to be one of the most beautiful in the city. Learn more.
Favela Orgânica (“Organic Favela”) is an initiative launched in late 2011 by Regina Tchelly, who decided to share her love of cooking while improving nutrition and sustainable food practices among favela residents in Rio de Janeiro. Tchelly’s specialty: the use of natural ingredients that people generally discard, such as banana, watermelon, and passion fruit peels, carrot leaves, and cauliflower and broccoli stalks. Weekly workshops held in Morro da Babilônia, the favela in southern Rio de Janeiro where Tchelly lives, combine instruction in cooking, sustainable urban agriculture, and composting practices with meals featuring tasty, healthy dishes like watermelon peel risotto and banana and passion fruit peel cake. Learn more.
Among Latin American countries, Brazil has led the way in addressing climate change in the region, notably by creating a national public policy framework to guide priorities and interventions in the field. Some of the most relevant advances include the approval of the National Policy on Climate Change in 2009. In the same year, a National Fund for Climate Change was established allowing the allocation of resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Brazil has also moved forward in reducing the deforestation process of the Amazon forest and has been successful in developing and expanding the use biofuels, areas that have placed the country in the global sustainability spotlight. Learn more.
O Museu de Favela – MUF é uma associação privada sem fins lucrativos, de interesse cultural e comunitário que atua no museu territorial integral formado pelas favelas Pavão, Pavãozinho e Cantagalo. Desde sua criação em 2008 o MUF desenvolve processos museais experimentais de modos de trabalho inusitados, plantando novos paradigmas no campo da museologia social brasileira. A visão de futuro é transformar aquelas favelas em monumento turístico carioca. A missão do MUF é realizar tal visão de futuro, transformadora de condições de vida local, através da cultura, e demonstrar que a solução de inclusão funcional urbana e socioeconômica sustentável de favelas deve partir de dentro delas.
In little more than a decade, Catalytic Communities has become an active voice in promoting a more educated understanding of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. CatComm (as it is usually called), a nonprofit organization established in Rio in 2000, aims to integrate the favelas into the wider society and generate greater knowledge about their rich cultural and social value. To accomplish these goals, it actively promotes capacity-building initiatives among low-income community leaders and youth, as well as conducting neighborhood visits and research. Read and discuss.
Brazil’s fight against HIV/AIDS has been widely recognized as a success story. In the course of the worldwide, thirty-year battle against the epidemic, this country has managed to control the spread of HIV/AIDS with highly active and open preventive campaigns while providing universal access to treatment to all HIV/AIDS patients. The most important aspects of Brazil’s success in fighting the epidemic have been, first, the government’s strong leadership and support to HIV/AIDS programs, at both the national and the municipal levels; second, the active mobilization of civil society and non-governmental organizations, which have helped to promote support at the local level. Read and discuss.
Until very recently, only the better-off neighborhoods in Rio were able to explore local cultural life and entertainment options online. Today, however, it’s possible to get updated and geo-referenced information about the region’s history and cultural life, as well as where to shop and eat in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods — such Complexo da Mare, Complexo do Alemão, Santa Marta, Pavão Pavozinho, and Cidade de Deus. All this is possible thanks to an initiative called Wikimapa, created in 2009 by Rede Jovem, an organization that has been working for more than 12 years to promote social inclusion among low-income adolescents though the use of technology. Read and discuss.